Jean-Pierre Lauzier, consultant, speaker in sales and author of the book “Le coeur aux ventes”, regularly gives his advice of personal and commercial development on Isarta Infos. Today, he teaches a way to discover his values and fundamental principles in order to develop his sales durably.
The great majority of the salesmen prefer to serve an established clientele rather than to go to seek a new one because they know the habits, the reactions and the ways of making from their regular customers. It is much more difficult to reach out to new customers because you don’t know the person or their way of thinking and you don’t know if trust will be easily established during a first contact.
Since every sales situation is different, a salesperson can easily be thrown off by a comment, question or way of doing things that is unique to a potential customer. Quite often, a salesperson will not react in the right way, which does not allow for a level of trust to be established quickly; as a result, the salesperson’s chances of doing business with that potential customer are significantly reduced.
potential customer.
If you are faced with this type of situation, here are your 3 options:
- Option 1: You tell yourself there is nothing you can do because that’s just the way you are and the chemistry between you and the customer just isn’t there.
If you recognize yourself in this first option and you don’t want to change, it will be very difficult for you to get better results than what you are currently getting and, in the long run, it is very likely that your business will go downhill.
- Option 2: You memorize the lines that apply to different sales situations.
If you choose to do this second option, you have a lot of work to do because it’s not easy to memorize.
Your results will be better than option 1, but it will be difficult to achieve outstanding results because a client likes to deal with sincere, natural and authentic people and these qualities are not revealed in this option.
- Option 3: You develop reflexes or automatisms based on fundamental values and principles that allow you to respond effectively and consistently to the client.
If you choose to operate as described in Option 3, then good for you, but this option is the most difficult to accomplish. However, it is the one that will give you excellent, solid and permanent results.
We are going to focus on this last option in order to understand and apply it correctly. This option requires you to think deeply about why you are doing this work in sales.
To discover what your core values and principles are, you need to ask yourself the following questions:
- Am I a person who is passionate about my work?
- What are my reasons for doing this job?
- Why am I selling this product or service?
- Why is the customer buying from me?
- How can I bring value to the customer?
- Am I willing to develop my expertise quickly?
- Etc.
If your answers sound like: “My primary goal is to make money and earn a good living,” then it will be difficult for you to develop solid reflexes and impactful automatisms.
Do you really believe that great builders like Jean Coutu (Jean Coutu Pharmacy), Joseph Armand Bombardier (Bombardier), Guy Laliberté (Cirque du Soleil), Pierre Péladeau (Quebecor) only thought about making money? It is normal that they thought about it, but it was not their primary goal. These people succeeded because they developed and integrated deep and solid values in their personal and professional lives. Wealth and fame are the consequences of the daily execution of these values.
If, after deep reflection, your answers are as follows
- I am passionate about the work I do;
- I want to help others (clients) get what they want;
- I want to develop my expertise;
- I consider, as a priority, my client’s concerns, wants, needs, irritants and problems;
- And so on.
- …and you want to perfect these aspects every day, then you are on the right track to achieve great things.
When you work with such deep principles and strong values as the ones mentioned above, it will be easy for you to respond in a powerful, sincere and natural way to any questions or comments from any potential client you meet.
Take care to reflect deeply on the reasons that lead you to work in your present job and have the courage to take action.
Good thinking!
